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Imagine it’s a starless, moonless night and you are in the flattest part of North Dakota. You light a small candle on the open prairie, and walk slowly away from it, backwards.

Recently I listened to a webinar filled with statistics.

• Repeat donor retention was down.

• New donor retention was down.

• Lapsed donor recapture was down.

(I was relieved to see overall giving is up slightly! Yay!)

The news made me think about what we can do to change the trajectory of the numbers and build operational security for our organizations.

The answer is stewardship. Intentional, meaningful stewardship can create lifetime donors with a strong attachment to our mission and cause.

Are your capital projects connected to your strategic priorities?

Let’s consider a new dining hall project at a resident camp. Is this project strategic, or simply reactive to growth in campers or the declining state of the building? This example drives home the importance of using a strategic framework to guide capital projects. Too often, nonprofits begin with a perceived need rather than a strategic imperative.

Capital planning and master planning for facilities flow from strategy… not the other way around.

I’ve been having conversations lately with several nonprofit leaders I trust. CEOs, Executive Directors, Development Directors who care deeply about their missions and take their responsibility seriously.

And even though their organizations look different, I keep hearing familiar observations and challenges.

Fundraising is moving. Fundraising is changing. And the question underneath it all is: How does our team change with it?

Congratulations!You have wrapped up annual giving for 2025. Whether you missed, met or exceeded your goal, it’s time to reset the clock and dive into 2026!Or is it?

Not so fast!

Over the last 12 months you invited hundreds of individuals, businesses and foundations into your amazing story of community need and critical impact.Through letters, posts, displays and conversation you educated everyone who would listen about your organization’s ability to solve problems and invited them to support your great work.

Well done. . .but you’re not done yet.

I genuinely thought this would be a five-minute fix.

One of the knobs on our gas stove broke, so I did what any reasonable person would do: I looked for and ordered a replacement. When it arrived, it wouldn’t fit. I checked the model number, confirmed it was correct, and assumed the problem was a manufacturing issue. So, I ordered another knob and returned the first one I ordered.

Same result.

Year-end fundraising is like football season. The game isn’t won in the last two minutes—it’s decided by the plays you’ve been running since the first quarter. If you wait until December to get serious, you’re basically showing up at halftime and hoping for a miracle comeback. Spoiler: that’s not a winning strategy.

Recently passed tax legislation will bring significant changes to charitable giving starting in 2026, creating both opportunities and challenges for donors across all income levels. Understanding these changes now could help you thoughtfully guide your donors through this altered landscape as they plan their year-end giving.

People sometimes avoid getting into the mud.

In many fundraising teams, donor stewardship follows a predictable script: a $250 donor gets a thank-you note and an annual report, a $500 donor also receives a quarterly newsletter and so on. While this approach acknowledges generosity, it also keeps donors in a holding pattern—focused on their last contribution rather than future possibilities.

What if stewardship wasn’t just about recognition and acknowledgement? By aligning stewardship with moves management, we can create a dynamic, forward-facing strategy that deepens engagement and drives transformational giving.